For years now, Sarabjit Singh has been a familiar name in newspapers. Human rights activists on both sides of the India-Pakistan border have been trying to have him released from a Lahore prison, saying his conviction is the result of mistaken identity.
The case has taken an even more cruel turn over the last couple of weeks, when it was believed he was going to be released. Later, it turned out it was another Indian prisoner, Surjeet Singh, who would be released.
The exchange of prisoners between India and Pakistan has been particularly relevant of late with Pakistani virologist Dr Mohammad Khalil Chishti finally returning home to Karachi after two decades spent either under house arrest or in prison in India.
Why is this issue in the news?
After the release of Dr Chishti from jail in April and his repatriation to Pakistan in May, there was some lobbying for the release of Sarabjit Singh from Pakistan as a goodwill gesture.
On June 26, Indian media broke the news that a spokesperson for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari had announced that Sarabjit Singh had received a presidential pardon and would be sent back to India.
Within a few hours, Pakistan announced that it was another prisoner, also serving a life term, Surjeet Singh and not Sarabjit Singh, who was to be released. Meanwhile, celebrations had broken out at Sarabjit Singh’s home and village. Angry voices from India accused Pakistan of playing games to distract from the capture of Abu Jundal a 26/11 accused who has been giving Indian authorities statements indicting the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). However, it was later found that the spokesperson had actually said “Surjeet Singh”, but mispronounced the name as “Sarjeet Singh”.
Who are held in cross-border prisons, and why?
Many prisoners are held across the border as prisoners of war, mainly from the 1971 battle between India and Pakistan. However, it is thought that most are people from villages near the border, held on charges of spying.
Intelligence agencies of both countries have accused each other of recruiting poor villagers to sneak across the border using false identities, for paltry stipends. Some of them have been arrested on the less severe charge of illegally crossing the border.
There are others who have been held for violating visa conditions, or for illegally extending their stay in the country, or for travelling without passports or valid visas.
Many prisoners are also fishermen who have strayed into the territorial waters of the neighbouring country. The argument has often been made that this violation occurs because maritime boundaries are not clearly marked. Technically, the norm is that the fishermen are questioned, given a warning and then returned to their own countries along with their boats.
Why are the sentences so long?
As spying is a very serious charge, the prisoners are usually sentenced to death. Sometimes it is commuted to life imprisonment. Some like Sarabjit Singh have been slapped with even more serious charges such as terrorism. In many cases, there has been no trial yet, or the trial itself has dragged on for a long time. Families of prisoners have often told the media they didn’t learnt of their incarceration for months.
When are they released?
Usually there is an “exchange of prisoners” as a goodwill gesture.
At other times, prisoners are released on humanitarian grounds citing long sentences that have been served already. This is what happened in the case of Dr Mohammad Khalil Chishti.
High profile cases of cross-border prisoners
Sarabjit Singh
Sarabjit Singh (49), a farmer from Bhikhiwind near the India-Pakistan border in Tarn Taran district of Punjab, was arrested on the night of August 28, 1990. Sarabjit has said he wandered across the border because he was drunk. The initial charge against him was illegally crossing the India-Pakistani border. But after eight days, Pakistani police alleged that he was Manjit Singh, the man behind a series of terror attacks in Faislabad and Lahore in 1990 in which 14 people were killed. The four blasts had occurred three months before Sarabjit was arrested.
Accused of working for Indian intelligence, he was convicted of spying and terrorism, and sentenced to death under Pakistan’s Army Act in 1991. Five mercy petitions have been filed and several high-profile lawyers have pointed out irregularities in the case against him. Pakistani human rights activist and lawyer Ansar Burney says none of the four FIRs lodged in the bombings case contain Sarabjit’s name or a description that fits him.
Surjeet Singh
Surjeet Singh (69) is a former death row prisoner who was arrested on charges of spying in February 1982. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1989 and he was released from Pakistan into India on June 28, 2012. He was reunited with his family at the Wagah Border, from where he walked into India. He is now back in his native village of Phidde, after spending more than 30 years in jail in Pakistan.
However, his release became controversial after he told the media that he had been lured into spying by a Border Security Force Inspector in 1968. He said he accepted the offer, was issued a fake identity card under the name ‘Anwar’, and visited Pakistan 80-85 times, and brought vital information back. He said this before accusing the Indian government of ignoring his plight, despite being aware that he had risked his life for the country.
Kashmir Singh
Kashmir Singh (71) was arrested in 1973, on the Peshawar-Rawalpindi road by Pakistani intelligence officers. He was accused of spying and smuggling, and sentenced to death by a Pakistan Army court the same year. The verdict was upheld by a civil court in 1977.
He filed several mercy petitions, and was finally sentenced to an indefinite jail term, and held for 35 years. In 2008 he was released with a Presidential pardon granted by Pervez Musharraf, after Ansar Burney took up his case.
Kashmir Singh, whom Burney had described as having become mentally disturbed, appeared quite lucid when he returned to India on March 4, 2008. He joked that his wife Paramjit was still beautiful though she had got old, as he came home to a hero’s welcome.
Later he alleged that he had been subjected to third degree torture for months, kept in solitary confinement in seven jails, and chained for 17 years. Then media reports said he had taken up spying for a payment of `400 a month in the late sixties, and gone into Pakistan under the name of ‘Ibrahim’.
Dr Mohammad Khalil Chishti
Dr Mohammad Khalil Chishti (80), a microbiologist from Pakistan, was arrested in 1992 in connection with a murder case, when he came to Ajmer to visit his ailing mother.
The story goes that Chishti, who moved to Saudi Arabia later, helped many of his Indian relatives find jobs in Riyadh. One of them was Idris Chishti, a distant relative who went on to lose his job and is believed to have held a grudge against Chishti. The two met in 1992 when Chishti came to visit his mother. Idris was in town for a wedding. After a fracas, Idris was murdered and Chishti was accused of killing him. Relatives called the police, and two constables were reportedly posted at the house. Chishti was arrested after the murder, but released on bail and kept under house arrest. He had to report to the police every 15 days, and this went on till 2010.
A campaign began in India, citing his age, illness and education as reasons he couldn’t harm anyone. Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju then wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking a pardon for Chishti on humanitarian grounds, as he suffers from cardiac problems and has a fractured hip bone.
On April 9, 2012, the Supreme Court issued an order for his release, and he was freed two days later.